Five Words
by Fabro de Omres
Summary: Soulmate AU where the first words your soulmate says to you are tatooed on your wrist. Second chapter is a deviation of this idea.
1. Blue? It's my favorite color!

_Blue? It's my favorite color!_

Five words. Five words that Jay has had memorized, since, well, forever. Five words that snake around his wrist, that keep him awake at night, and that always cheer him up when he's feeling down.

He wonders what situation he'll meet his soulmate. Maybe they'll meet by an _ocean_. He's never seen one, but he's heard of the sheer amount of blue water there. Or maybe they'll be looking up at the sky. The sky is pretty.

He begins to ask every single person he meets what their favorite color is. And while he's gotten several blues, none of them match up to the words on his wrist.

 _JAYAJAYAJAYAJAYA_

 _Oo you ike bloo?_

Four words that have haunted Nya her entire life. Four words that she tries desperately to hide, that she pretends don't exist, that she tries to forget.

But sometimes she can't stop the thoughts from coming. What type of person was her soulmate? Were they mentally-challenged? Were they a drunkard? She doesn't know, and she hates not knowing. One thing she does know, though: she's not going to be some person's prize just because they happen to say her words. And so she does the next best thing: she hides her mark and refuses to talk about the subject.

She grows from a forceful girl into a confident young woman, and it's not long before the men take notice.

 _JAYAJAYAJAYAJAYA_

He fiddles with the last strap on his glider. The wings quiver in the wind. He steps to the edge of the building, glancing down and realizing just how high up he is. He almost considers backing out. But then the words on his arm catch his eye, and he resolves to go through with his plan.

He jumps, almost certainly to his death. He doesn't panic, doesn't fight back, doesn't cry. He only hopes that his soulmate will see him on the front page of some newspaper proclaiming his death- but more importantly, his dare-devil stunt. _They'd be better off without me,_ he reasons. _Without some lame failure. This way, they'll have a good memory of me._

But something changes. A fire hydrant below him bursts open, the geyser sending him spinning into a billboard. He stumbles to his feet and notices an old man calmly sipping tea, like some teenager didn't just smash through the board beside him.

"I am Sensei Wu," the man says. "And you have the potential to become a great ninja."

Jay is so stunned, he blurts the first thing that comes to his mind. "Do you like blue?"

 _JAYAJAYAJAYAJAYA_

She leans against the doorframe, watching her brother pound into a sword. He plunges it into water, groaning as it comes out contorted.

"You made it too quickly, Kai," she tells him. "Be patient. If father was here-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Her brother cuts her off. "No matter how much fire you have, experience isn't something you learn overnight."

An elderly man strolls into the shop, and suddenly a routine day explodes into mayhem. Skeleton warriors pour into the village, bringing destruction and ransacking the houses. Her brother dons armor and hefts a sword. She follows with a staff. They fight together.

But then a bony claw is clutching her waist, and she's being ripped away.

 _JAYAJAYAJAYAJAYA_

The only bad thing about being a ninja, he reasons, is the lack of socialization. Sure, he springs the question on his teammates as soon as he meets them, but they only answer orange and white. And the new kid's first words were "uh-oh," not "it's my favorite color!"

"But what about my sister?"

"We're saving a girl? Does she like blue?"

The hedgehog-haired teen blinks back at him. "What? That's none of your business!" He notices how the brunet's eyes stray to his wrist, and he's grateful that the words are hidden by his gi.

Jay covers it with his hand anyway.

 _JAYAJAYAJAYAJAYA_

She finds herself thinking about the words- and their owner- as she's being kept captive. She wonders if she'll even have the chance to meet them. To hear the jumbled letters on her arm being spoken aloud.

 _Don't think like that!_ she scolds herself. _You're going to get out of here. They can't break you._

She still wonders.

 _JAYAJAYAJAYAJAYA_

As soon as she laughs, he knows he's hopelessly in love. Kai's going on about dragons and the underworld, but he's unable to focus. He panics. _Of all the times to loose my voice it had to be this!_ He hacks, managing to wheeze out, "Oo you ike bloo?"

The girl freezes, even before Zane steps in to translate. He wonders if she had his words, his true words. He worries that he said something wrong, until she gasps out, "Blue? It's my favorite color!"

He's shocked and elated, but he can't help the dopey grin that breaks out.

 _JAYAJAYAJAYAJAYA_

"Oo you ike bloo?"

She gawks. She actually stares at him, lips apart in a silent 'o'. She barely hears the one in white speaking, because all she can do is gape.

"Blue?" she chokes out, because who was this boy and why was he saying _that?_ "It's my favorite color."


	2. I'm sorry, Nya!

_Blue? It's my favorite color!_

Five words. Five words that Jay has had memorized, since, well, forever. Five words that snake around his wrist, that keep him awake at night, and that always cheer him up when he's feeling down.

He wonders what situation he'll meet his soulmate. Maybe they'll meet by an _ocean_. He's never seen one, but he's heard of the sheer amount of blue water there. Or maybe they'll be looking up at the sky. The sky is pretty.

He begins to ask every single person he meets what their favorite color is. And while he's gotten several blues, none of them match up to the words on his wrist.

 _So you're Sensei's new recruit._ The dark gray words that march across his shin give him more hope. Gray- the color of platonic soulmates. The shade of gray hints at a relationship that might develop into something more, one day. He takes comfort in the thought of being loved by not one, but two people.

linelinelinelineline

 _I'm sorry, Nya!_

Three words that have puzzled Nya forever. _How will they know my name?_ she wonders, _if they've just met me?_ The letters, a messy scrawl that encircle her wrist, both intrigue and frustrate her.

She doesn't know what to do with them, so she does the next best thing: pretends they don't exist.

She knows that she should be grateful for the words. With two soulmarks, most people would consider her extremely lucky.

Her brother has two as well, only neither are 'real soulmarks'. "Thanks, but I can handle myself." "You just made me your nemesis!" Unlike her, Kai wears them proudly, like a badge of honor. She doesn't understand that. Why reveal a very private part of yourself to everybody?

And so her words stay covered by clothing and bracelets, protected from outside eyes.

linelinelinelineline

He fiddles with the last strap on his glider. The wings quiver in the wind. He steps to the edge of the building, glancing down and realizing just how high up he is. He almost considers backing out. But then the words on his arm catch his eye, and he resolves to go through with his plan.

He jumps, almost certainly to his death. He doesn't panic, doesn't fight back, doesn't cry. He only hopes that his soulmates will see him on the front page of some newspaper proclaiming his death- but more importantly, his dare-devil stunt. They'd be better off without me, he reasons. Without some lame failure. This way, they'll have a good memory of me.

But something changes. A fire hydrant below him bursts open, the geyser sending him spinning into a billboard. He stumbles to his feet and notices an old man calmly sipping tea, like some teenager didn't just smash through the board beside him.

"I am Sensei Wu," the man says. "And you have the potential to become a great ninja."

Jay is so stunned, he blurts the first thing that enters his head. "Do you like blue?"

linelinelinelineline

She wakes from one darkness and instantly plunges into another. The sack suffocates her, bites into her skin. She claws at the burlap. She screams for her brother. She kicks and spits curses.

"Unhand me, skeletons!"

"I'm sorry, Nya!"

It's as if a bolt of lightning jolts through her. Her throat clenches, she can't breathe. "Who are you?" she demands. "And how do you know those words?" Her fingers flex; she clenches them into fists.

Everything goes deathly quiet, leaving her blind to the world outside. She hears hissed whispers, whispered hisses. And then she's falling, falling for a mere second before she _s_ into something hard. It's gritty and dry and knocks the breath from her. A roof. She wriggles, throws her weight, and she's rewarded when she begins to move. She doesn't think about the skeleton who bears her words. She only thinks about escape.

And she's falling again, and she's braced for the impact, but it doesn't come. The sack jerks, and then she's lowered onto the ground.

Light spills in. She shields her eyes, squinting, trying to perceive just who her rescuer is.

A dark figure. He turns, and her eyes lock with his. They're blue, the brightest she's ever seen, and her breath is taken away by e sight. He's a hazy outline, a boy in black, a savior in the night. And then he's gone, vanished into the darkness.

She doesn't see him again.

The memory stays with her, something to analyze over her following days of captivity.

linelinelinelineline

He stumbles up the last step and collapses on the edge. "Which idiot had the bright idea to build his house on the top of of a gigantic mountain?" he complains, voice rising to a shriek. His side burns; he groans at the thought of how sore he will be the next day.

"My father," Sensei Wu says simply.

Jay resolves not to ask anymore stupid questions.

They pass through two heavy doors and enter a courtyard- and there's a boy. He hops off a post and strides towards him, muscles rolling and flexing and wow, the sweat-soaked shirt does little to hide his physique. The boy's skin is rich, with eyes that glow brilliant green, and he's the most perfect thing that he's ever seen.

"So you're Sensei's new recruit," smirks the boy, and Jay's heart skips a beat. It can't be. "Gotta say, he's not gonna need to strengthen your voice." He extends his hand. "The name's Cole. I'll be your teammate."

He can't stop grinning. It's a true smile, a smile that radiates happiness, and joy, and euphoria. _This_ guy is one of his soulmates? "What, are you the ninja of emo-ness or something?" he says without thought. He sees the way that the other boy's eyes widen, and he's fearful for a second, but then there's a grin, and he can't help but feel that everything's right with the world.

linelinelinelineline

Kai is here. She breathes a sigh of relief. He holds his sword aloft; the volcano only enhances its supernatural glow.

And then there's a rush of adrenaline. Many things happen at once. Garmadon in the flesh appears, along with four strangely-dressed people who keep talking about things like the future, theories, and time travel until her head hurts, and then there's a flash of light as weapons and people disappear in a blinding flash if light.

She's still trying to process when she hears a rumble. It starts soft, but grows louder. She spins around and comes face-to-face with a dragon. Her heart skips a beat, and she backs up into Kai. He stares, expression mirroring her own.

"Of course," he berates himself. "There were guards in the other places, so why not here?"

"Guards?" she asks, taking a step forward, taking a half-formed plan and acting on it. "Guards of what?"

"The weapons."

"Well, your sword's gone," she says. "Dragon, the weapon has been stolen. We're looking for them, but we're stuck inside this volcano. Could you help us out?"

Several agonizing seconds of no response. She falters, because what do you do when staring into the face of death? And then the dragon gives just the slightest of nods. A relieved grin. A exhale. She hesitantly reaching out to stroke its snout. "Thank you."

Kai scales the dragon first, finding the right place to sit on. He pulls her up to sit behind him. "There's a kid out there," he warns, gripping into the horns of the dragon. "He's already interested in you. Don't worry, I already told him to back off."

linelinelinelineline

The words slip from his lips. "I'm sorry, Nya!" Cole and Zane freeze. They glare at him, wide-eyed.

The thrashing cuts off. He's relieved, until she speaks again. Her voice is low, accusatory.

"Who are you? And h- how do you know those words?"

His brain doesn't process immediately. When it does, he chokes. "Words?" he echoes, because what can he say when he's confronted with the dream that terrifies and suffocates and drowns him in ecstasy? "Oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. I- Cole!" His soulmate looks as startled as he feels. "It's her! It really was her!"

"Watch out!" Zane whispers. "It appears that we have company."

He tears his eyes away from Cole and scans the roofs, heart pounding. Three figures, clad in black, sneak towards the central building.

He groans, donning his mask and dropping her sack. Then he's gone, a mere blip in the night, a silent assassin.

linelinelinelineline

She stares. She stares, because _who_ is this boy who looks at her like she's hung the moon and given the stars their shine?

He opens his mouth, but no sound comes out. His eyebrows narrow, and she's suddenly struck with the realization of just who he is. It's the boy in black, the boy from the monastery, the boy with the brilliant blue eyes.

"Ooo wike blu?"

His face is hopeful. Hesitant. She stares, unmoving, unsure. Because she knows what he wants. If she's being honest to herself, it's what she wants. She debates with herself, for in the past she simply never responded to the advances made by others. But why should she be afraid of responding, when she's already met her match?

Her match is a skeleton warrior. And while she detests the idea, a part of her _knows_ this, knows this terrible fact to be true. And so she hesitates only a second before responding.

"Blue? It's my favorite color."


End file.
